The Import Products feature can be used to either add new Products to your Catalog or to update existing Products.
The spreadsheet containing the products for import must be in Comma Separated Values (CSV) format, also called comma delimited.
To add products from the D-Tools Library, go to the Product Explorer and click Import under the Tools tab.
This opens a Browse window so you can navigate to your import file.
Once a CSV file has been selected, the Map CSV File interface will open.
Depending on your spreadsheet, you may not see all of the steps shown below.
Step 1
You will need to map the columns in your CSV file to Database Fields in the SI Catalog. Some fields will be pre-mapped if they are an exact match or if they are determined to be a close match.
At this point, only the Model field is required to map. Before importing you will need to assign a Manufacturer to each product but you can do this later with the Mass Update function once you get through the Map CSV File steps.
Any unmapped fields will not be imported.
Once imported into SI, the first time you open the Product for edit you will be required to assign a Category before you can save the Product.
Step 2
The second step of the wizard will list all Manufacturers that do not exist in your SI Catalog.
They will be defaulted to "Add as New" but you can click the Map link if you wish to map them manually to existing Manufacturers, e.g. your spreadsheet has "AT & T" but you know that in your Catalog you have them listed as "AT&T."
When you map a Manufacturer you will be prompted to add the CSV Manufacturer as an alias to Manufacturer so you won't have to map this again.
Step 3
The third step of the wizard will list all Categories that do not exist in your SI Catalog.
They will be defaulted to "Add as New" but you can click the Map link if you wish to map them manually to existing Categories, e.g. your spreadsheet has "Speaker" but in your Catalog, you have it pluralized as "Speakers."
Step 4
The last step is just a summary of the previous steps.
Once you click Finish, the Import Editor will open.
The Import Editor will open after the Map CSV File is complete and displays a preview of the data to be imported.
You can import only New and/or Matched Products. You can import the entire file or just the selected records.
The filter section of the ribbon allows you to examine each classification for completeness.
All - All of the records in the file.
New - Filters to Items not currently in your SI Catalog.
Matched - Filters to Items that currently exist in your SI Catalog.
Close - Filters to Items that are considered close matches to Items in your SI Catalog.
Duplicate - Filters to records in the CSV file that are duplicates of each other based on Manufacturer and Model.
Inadequate - Filters to records in the CSV file that are missing either Manufacturer, Model, or Category fields. These three fields are required.
Error - Filters to records that are considered errors, this could occur if there are headings in the body of the CSV file.
The map section of the filter allows you to re-map the columns from the CSV file if needed, or you can map the Manufacturer and/or Category fields if you did not do so earlier.
For duplicate items in the spreadsheet, you can select the one you want to import and click the Pick One From Duplicates button.
This will mark the selected item as New and remove the other item from the Import Editor.
When you have a record selected that is a Close Match, all three functions in the Map section of the ribbon become active.
Mark as New
This will mark the Close Match as New and allow the product to be imported.
Match
This will open the Match CSV Products interface showing the close match in your SI Catalog.
Check for Matches
This will re-check the SI Catalog to look for exact matches.
The following are the options to manage the items in the Import Editor.
Mass Update - The Mass Update function will allow you to update multiple items in the Import Editor at one time. A common use for this would be if your CSV file did not have a Category column. You would need to update all items with an appropriate Category to import as Category is a required field.
Export - You can export selected items in the CSV file to a new CSV file. You might do this for all of the items that fail to import so you can then correct the items and then import.
Delete - This will delete an item from the Import Editor.
